1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to conference calling systems, and more specifically relates to a method, system, and computer program product for displaying images of conference call participants.
2. Related Art
Conference calls are a standard method of communication in today's business environment. A common problem with conference calling is the determination of who is participating in the conference call. On many conference calls, a beep or series of beeps is used to indicate that someone has either joined or dropped the conference call. Some conference calling systems offer the ability for a participant to record a short message (e.g., name). This recorded message is played when the participant joins or exits the conference call. In either of these cases, the conference call is interrupted with an audio signal (e.g., beep(s), recorded name), which can be very distracting to the participants currently taking part in the conference call. Further, if a participant list is needed, the moderator of the conference call must stop and ask, for example, “Who is participating in the call?,” “Who just joined the call?,” etc. This process takes time and disrupts the flow of the conference call. Also, it is difficult to know exactly how many participants are actually taking part in the conference call at any given time. These problems raise security concerns because it is possible for an unauthorized person to “listen in” to a conference call without the knowledge of the other participants.